International Drilling Rig Count Slides in February

Oil field services company Baker Hughes Inc. (NYSE: BHI) today reported that its count of foreign oil and gas drilling rigs fell slightly from 1,279 in January to 1,275 in February. Adding in Canadian and U.S. rigs, the total global count is 3,679, still well below February 2012's 3,900 total count, which was the highest in more than two years.

Month over month, the largest increases came in Latin America and Asia Pacific, where the counts increased by 13 in each region. The largest decrease came in the Middle East, down from 379 in January to 350 in February. Baker Hughes did not get a rig count from Syria, which had 20 rigs in January. The rig count for OPEC members rose from 414 in January to 420 in February, with most of that gain coming from additional rigs in Latin America.

Total foreign land rigs outnumbered offshore rigs by about three to one in February, with 952 land rigs to 323 offshore rigs. Internationally, the split between oil and gas rigs is somewhat higher, with about 77% of the rigs looking for oil.